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Unfortunately, relatively few Americans get the recommended daily allowance… which is 320 mg for women and 420 mg for men.

When most people think about nutrients for heart health, omega-3s usually come to mind first, for good reasons.

The clinically demonstrated ability of omega-3 fatty acids to reduce the risk of heart-related death may stem in part from their proposed normalizing effects on heart rhythms.

Omega-3s also exert anti-inflammatory and other beneficial effects that probably play major roles in their exceptional ability to support heart health.

But judging by the findings of two recent epidemiological studies, magnesium may be just as important to reducing the risk of sudden cardiac death.

Sudden cardiac death… a very common bolt from the blue

According to the American Heart Association, “Sudden death from cardiac arrest is a major health problem that's received much less publicity than heart attack” (AHA 2010).

In fact, sudden cardiac death (SCD) accounts for about half of all heart-related fatalities, and it’s the kind that omega-3s are virtually proven to help deter.

The most common underlying reason for SCD is coronary heart disease—fatty buildup in the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle.

But the common immediate cause of the cardiac arrest that leads to SCD is an abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia).

As the American Heart Association says, “The victim may or may not have diagnosed heart disease. The time and mode of death are unexpected. It occurs within minutes after symptoms appear” (AHA 2010).

In other words, SCD truly is a bolt from the blue… and its unpredictable nature makes it even more critical to ensure that you take every credible step to reduce the risk.

Harvard’s hearty findings on magnesium follow Minnesota team’s

Last fall, a University of Minnesota team concluded—based on their analysis of blood, diet and health data from 14,232 men and women—that low blood levels of magnesium “… may be an important predictor of SCD [sudden cardiac death].”

They Minnesota team made a very reasonable recommendation: “Further research into the effectiveness of Mg [magnesium] supplementation for those considered to be at high risk for SCD is warranted” (Peacock JM et al. 2010).

Coincidentally, scientists from Harvard just published the results of their analysis of blood, diet and health data from a subset of the 88,375 women who participated in the famed Nurses’ Health Study (Chiuve SE et al. 2010).

Like all the Nurses’ Health Study participants, the women chosen for comparison—99 who died from sudden cardiac death and 291 healthy “controls”—had completed diet questionnaires and given blood samples in 1980 and again every few years.

After adjusting the results for other influences on heart risk, the Harvard team concluded that the women with high reported magnesium intakes were 37 percent less likely to have died from SCD, compared with women reporting low magnesium intakes.

Better yet, the women with high magnesium blood levels were 77 percent less likely to have died from SCD, compared with the women showing low blood levels.

Affirming magnesium as the source of the risk reduction, the analysis showed that the risk of SCD dropped 41 percent for every incremental rise of 0.25 milligrams of magnesium per deciliter of blood.

The Harvard team’s finding echo those reported by the Minnesota group: “…higher plasma [blood] concentrations and dietary magnesium intakes were associated with lower risks of SCD.”